Customer Reviews

Roman Blood: A Novel of Ancient Rome (Novels of Ancient Rome)

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first began reading Steven Saylor's short stories in Ellery Queen and was immediately taken with his writing. Saylor brings history to life in an immediate and vivid manner. He does it so well, the reader doesn't notice it after awhile. "Roman Blood" is first and foremost a mystery, and the "detective" is Gordinius the Finder, a Roman citizen who is often hired to find truth. In this story a man is accused of murdering his father, and faces a horrible punishment if Gordinius and Cicero cannot find him innocent. Saylor exposes the corruption of the Roman political system while asking pointed questions about what justice is. This novel is so far my favorite of Saylor's novels because although he delves into the politics of the Roman Forum, the book is foremost a mystery novel. Gordinius is attempting to solve the murder of a Roman citizen, and Saylor maintains the suspensefulness throughout the novel. The book's ending leaves the readers surprised and thoughtful. Saylor also, by the end of the book, has ensured his future royalties because he's made you care about the characters and leaves you wanting to read more about their lives and their challenges.

Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series is wonderful for the exploration of character, for the mysteries (of course), and for bringing Ancient Rome to life. The descriptions of Rome made me feel like I was walking through a city teeming with life, people, sights, sounds, smells.

The novels seem to become more complex as the series goes on. Roman Blood, the first novel in the series, is the most straight-forward murder mystery. Arms of Nemesis puts Gordianus under pressure with a time limit, and looks at the way slaves fit into Roman society. Catalina's Riddle takes place on a farm, in the midst of a possible revolution. The Venus Throw involves, scandal, politics and an examination of morals. I haven't read the other books yet, but I have ordered them. I heartily recommend this series.

and join Gordianus the Finder as he hunts through those twisting, winding streets to aid Cicero (yes, that Cicero).

Set in 80 BC, during the dictatorship of Sulla, Gordianus is hired by a young orator named Cicero to investigate a case, Sextus Roscius, a gentleman farmer, is accused of the murder of his father. Gordianus is soon plunged into the not so glamorous side of ancient Rome, a Rome of hired killers, corrupt government, brothels and home invasions. A world where a dying man's screams only cause good citizens to cover their ears and hide behind their barred doors.

The clues to the mystery of this novel are all there for the reader to follow but twist and turn so that it would be a challenge to solve the crime before Gordianus. The real treat to this story is not the mystery, although it is engaging, but rather the glimpse into the ancient world. Even though Gordianus has many of the same concerns of a modern day citizen, (crime in the streets, corruption in government, stretching the income to cover expenses) but he is very much a man of his times. Gordianus must contend with the social niceties of how a free citizen should treat a slave, his own and those belonging to others, finding his way through a city that has no maps, nor even any names on most of the streets, streets where a citizen could be killed at any time by a common thief, in a vendetta with a rival family or even at the request of the government. Saylor's descriptions of the settings and characters are fascinating, they bring this long gone time a place alive in an interesting and entertaining manner.

This is the first of the ROMA SUB ROSA series, and I cannot wait to get my hands on the next in the series.

(there's a spoiler in here, so be warned)

I wouldn't have read this book on my own - it was recommended by my son's history teacher. And it's actually not bad - but it isn't for kids.

The book has some pretty steamy, detailed sex scenes - nails clawing in the back, hips thrusting, etc, etc. In fact, it has two such scenes in the first 50 pages, not to mention a brutal stabbing in the middle of a mob (which the protagonists choose to ignore), and a scene where one of our main characters lusts after the pretty, dead flesh of a corpse. Eesh.

We go on to deal with rape, father-daughter incest, your run-of-the-mill child abuse and neglect, another brutal stabbing (first reenacted, rather heartbreakingly, by a traumatized child, then described in vivid detail), the nasty ways a parricide is punished (to which an eager potential child witness responds "wow, I've never seen a monkey before!"), the beheading of thousands whose heads are impaled and on public display. The killing of a kitty cat whose blood is used as ink. A grown man having sex with a woman he owns as property while fantasizing about having sex with a young girl he knows has been molested by her father.And a couple more brutal stabbings.

As a historical detective novel, I think it did a fine job - it's not my genre, and I was certainly captivated by the story. Jacqueline Susann/Raymond Chandler in a toga, sort of thing. But it's not for those under 17.

How very ironic that the week after my students I am discussed and read Cicero's letters to his slave, Tiro, that I should get this book. I read it quickly and enjoyed every minute of it. While I might argue on some historical points, the speculations about society in Rome in 80 BCE are well done and played out with depth and personality. I suggested it to my students today on our last class as a good example of popular history also being well-done history. Saylor does an outstanding job in this entire series, it seems now having read a second book in it, of protraying slavery as a realistic institution.

This is a decent, well-written mystery. It's not a top-tier mystery, but good enough that I intend to buy more of Saylor's work. The Roman setting was interesting because it seemed realistic, and the plot pacing was good. I wish the main character's motivations were a little better drawn, though. It seems he's motivated largely by needing to earn a living and enhance his social class, which is a perfectly normal motivation in any era, but a little bit pedestrian. I'd like to see him face and resolve some morally complex situations, which would not only be interesting in its own right, but give us a chance to know him and empathize with him more deeply. After all, one can only learn so much about a character by seeing him resolve the standard "two goons waiting for him in an alley" crisis. I also think the attack on Ronald Reagan was unwarranted and undisciplined. It was self-indulgent on the author's part to force the reader to react to a contemporary political statement when the natural thing for a reader to be doing at that phase of the book is to be thinking about the resolution of the plot.

Steven Saylor's novel is aptly named -- a good deal of Roman blood is indeed spilled when Gordianus the Finder agrees to help a young lawyer named Marcus Tullius Cicero with his first case. Cicero has been hired to defend one Sextus Roscius, accused of killing his father, also named Sextus Roscius. The crime of patricide was punishable by death in ancient Rome, and neither Cicero nor Gordianus wants to see an innocent man executed.

Saylor does a good job of bringing Rome to life; he includes many details, including descriptions of the narrow, winding streets, the oppressive heat of summer, and the intricacies of the Roman legal system, that create a sense of place and painlessly educate the reader. There are only a few places where the description intrudes into the story. Since the story is bound up with the political intrigue surrounding the rule of the dictator Sulla (80 BC), a knowledge of Roman history will help the reader keepthe characters and their motivations straight. Saylor does give an explanation of Sulla's rise to power and the atrocities he and his followers committed, but it comes late in the book and drags on for several pages, so this is not as useful as it could be. Readers not familiar with (or uninterested in) Roman history may have trouble getting into the book, but overall the setting is well-done and convincing.

The mystery aspect of the novel was not as interesting as the historical aspect; the story is slow in places, and it was hard to care about the characters, especially since many of them lack redeeming qualities. Also, Saylor has an unfortunate tendencyto overemphasize key plot points, as if he doesn't want the reader to miss the fact that a certain discovery is a clue. Part of the mystery reader's responsibility is to find the clues on her own; it is the mystery author's job to confuse the reader about what is a clue and what is a red herring. Saylor doesn't seem to have mastered that skill. The end of the novel, which includes the requisite court scene with Cicero making his argument on behalf of the accused, seems to take forever to lumber to a conclusion. Read the book for its setting, but don't expect too much in the mystery department.

As always in the case of a (good) historical novel, this is a story about a modern character in pseudo-Ancient grab peeeping at an alien reality and judging it on his own terms. The interest of the story therefore depends on the modern character being intersting enough. Fact is, Gordianus the Finder is a very interesting character, the knowledge of Roman History displayed by the author accurate, and there are vignettes in this book I wouldn't wish to miss (for instance, the account of Gordianus' travel to Ameria). An enormously interesting book, deserves to be read both as a mystery and as a historical novel.

I had been putting off reading this series, but finally decided to start, and I'm glad I did. The book is a long one, but it is so interesting, and so suspenseful that it kept me turning pages. While I was reading I almost forgot I was reading about Ancient Rome circa 80 B.C. Gordianus the Finder is a strong character, and he definitely moves this book along. There is a whole gamut of stuff going on from parricide to murder, to hired assassins, as well as a whole lot of family secrets. The settiog that Saylor sets is very vivid and realistic. This book is both a good history lesson as well as an excellent mystery. Can't wait to read more. Even though these books are about ancient Rome they are as different from Lindsey Davis' Rome as can be, but still wonderful. Lindsey Davis is one of my very favourite authors, and that is why I was hesitant to begin this series, but the series will have merit in its own right.

'Roman Blood' is an excellent example of historical fiction where the words 'historical' and 'fiction' are given equal attention. Steven Saylor spins a "whodunnit" mystery based on real events, much like Margaret Atwood does in her excellent 'Alias Grace'. This is unlike the work of Lindsey Davis, an author whose popular Falco mystery series, while in a similar ancient Rome setting, is pure fiction (although the author clearly knows her Roman history).

As for the story, hmmm... it's a bit complicated. Broadly speaking it is about a private eye (Gordianus) who is hired by a defense attorney (Cicero) to investigate the bloody death of a Roman citizen. The victim's son is accused of planning the murder and, if convicted, would suffer a most extraordinarily gruesome execution. In the end we witness the murder trial and its aftermath, both of which are rather ... surprising. Yet before then the reader is taken through the very colorful day-to-day events of Roman high-lifes and low-lifes; I found it all to be very educational, and the murder mystery element is very well presented.

Compared to the works of Lindsey Davis, 'Roman Blood' is somewhat dry - it doesn't contain much humor, and the characterizations, while completely satisfactory, do not sparkle. Yet I actually prefer the work of Steven Saylor because of its historical accuracy and I find his prose to be richer (ie, it feels more like 'literature' versus 'popular fiction').

Bottom line: not quite James Michener material, but nonetheless a very accomplished piece of historical fiction. Recommended.